Ross Ohlendorf

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Ross Ohlendorf [1]

Ohlendorf during his tenure with the Pirates
Free Agent – No. -
Starting pitcher
Born: August 8, 1982 (1982-08-08) (age 29)
Austin, Texas
Bats: Right Throws: Right 
MLB debut
September 11, 2007 for the New York Yankees
Career statistics
(through 2011 Season)
Win-Loss     14–28
Earned run average     4.77
Strikeouts     273
Teams
Ohlendorf pitching for the New York Yankees in spring training 2008.

Curtis Ross Ohlendorf (born August 8, 1982, in Austin, Texas) is a Major League Baseball starting pitcher who is currently a Free agent. He is known for his hardhitting Sinking fastball. He can hit 97 mph with a two-seam sinking fastball, and he's working to improve his developing changeup, slider, and breaking ball.[2]

Contents

[edit] High School and College Career

Ohlendorf was born in Austin, Texas. His family owns a Texas Longhorn ranch that Ohlendorf helps maintain.[2] He graduated from St. Stephen's Episcopal High School in Austin in 2001 where he was a two-sport athlete, playing basketball and baseball.[3][4]

Ohlendorf majored in Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton University where in 2002, as a freshman pitcher, he was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year. Ohlendorf, a second-team All-Ivy selection, was 3rd in the League with a 3.02 ERA. He finished with a 6-2 record.[5] As a student, he penned a 140-page senior thesis entitled Investing in Prospects: A Look at the Financial Successes of Major League Baseball Rule IV Drafts from 1989 to 1993 [6] Ohlendorf was one of six Ivy Leaguers on major league rosters at the beginning of the 2009 season.[1]

Ohlendorf completed his degree at Princeton in 2006 while in the Arizona Diamondbacks' farm system.[7] He received the George Mueller Award from the university for combining "high scholarly achievement in the study of engineering with quality performance in intercollegiate athletics". In his senior thesis, Ohlendorf used sabermetrics to demonstrate the return on investment from the Major League Baseball Draft.[7][8]

[edit] Professional career

Ohlendorf was selected in the fourth round of 2004 Major League Baseball Draft by the Diamondbacks. In 2004, Ohlendorf was chosen by Baseball America as one of the Northwest League’s Top 20 prospects. In 2005, he was named to the Midwest League All-Star team. He finished the season tied for the team lead with 11 victories, and second in the league with 144 strikeouts.

[edit] 2006

In 2006, playing for the Diamondbacks AA affiliate, the Tennessee Smokies, Ohlendorf went 10-8 with a 3.29 ERA and led the Southern League with four complete games, earning a promotion to AAA Tucson for one playoff start.[9]

He was traded to the New York Yankees as the key prospect in the Randy Johnson deal.[10][11]

Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said of Ohlendorf: "He's big, physical, eats innings and he's competitive. He's a workhorse."[12]

[edit] 2007

Ohlendorf pitched mostly for the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees in 2007. Ohlendorf struggled with injuries and inconsistency as a starter with Scranton and was moved to the bullpen. Ohlendorf embraced his new role and pitched extremely effectively, able to maintain a higher velocity and precision on his pitches due to shorter outings. On September 9, when Scranton was eliminated from the playoffs, Ohlendorf was promoted to the Major Leagues.

On September 11, he pitched in his first Major League game against the Toronto Blue Jays for the Yankees. He pitched one inning without allowing a baserunner while striking out one. On September 15, he pitched 11⁄3 innings against the Boston Red Sox, allowing a walk and a home run, but recording all four outs on strikeouts. Ohlendorf impressed the Yankees enough in September to earn a spot on the ALDS roster, but struggled in his lone appearance in the series, allowing three runs on four hits and one walk in one inning.

[edit] 2008

On July 26, he was acquired by the Pittsburgh Pirates from the New York Yankees in a deal with Jose Tabata, Jeff Karstens, and Daniel McCutchen for Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte.[13]

Ohlendorf spent the first month pitching for the AAA Indianapolis Indians and was called up to Pittsburgh on September 2 when the rosters expanded. He was added to the starting rotation and made his first appearance on September 3 against the Cincinnati Reds where he pitched 6 innings and allowed 3 earned runs in a 6-5 Pirates victory.

[edit] 2009

Ohlendorf would pitch his first full season in the majors for the Pirates. He would earn the status of being the only Pirates starter to have a winning record, going 11-10 out of his 29 pitched games with a 3.92 ERA.

Ohlendorf was a stamina pitcher, often lasting late into games. In all, he threw 1762⁄3 innings, 45 more than his previous year total. The Pirates would shut him down for the remainder of the season following his September 19 start to rest him for next year. Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington would say, "We're looking forward to working with him to put him in position to where he can be a 200-plus inning starter for many, many years to come." [14]

On September 5, 2009 Ohlendorf became the 40th pitcher to strike out three batters on nine pitches.

His final 2009 stats were a 11-10 record, a 3.92 ERA, 25 home runs given up, hit 7 batsmen, walked 53, struck out 109, had a .255 average against, a 1.23 walks and hits per inning pitched, in 176.2 innings.

[edit] 2010

Ohlendorf was hit in the head by a line drive off of Troy Tulowitzki's bat in a July 28 game against the Colorado Rockies. He left the game as a precaution. This was the 2nd time in 2010 a Pirates pitcher was hit in the head by a line drive, the first being Chris Jakubauskas. Unlike Jakubauskas, Ohlendorf did not miss any starts. Following the season and a 1–11 record with a 4.07 E.R.A., Ohlendorf won his arbitration hearing and a $439,000 raise to $2,025,000. On September 15, Ohlendorf hit his first career home run off Dana Eveland. [15]

[edit] 2011

Ohlendorf got out to a bad season, going 1-2 with a 6.82 ERA. On September 15, Ohlendorf hit his first career home run off Dana Eveland, also becoming the first Pirates pitcher to homer since Paul Maholm did so on May 9, 2009, against the New York Mets.[16]

[edit] Personal

His brother Chad is also attending Princeton and pitching for the school.[17]

After the 2006 season, he became an intern for the University of Texas System's Office of Finance.

Following the 2009 season, Ohlendorf began an 8 week internship for the Department of Agriculture.[18]

Ohlendorf loves to read, especially history books.

He was recently chosen as the third smartest professional athlete by the Sporting News.[19]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=456027
  2. ^ a b Young Yankees Pitcher Has Love for Ranching
  3. ^ Sports Story #1
  4. ^ St. Stephen's Episcopal School: Athletics
  5. ^ All-Ivy Baseball Announced
  6. ^ http://libweb5.princeton.edu/theses/index.htm
  7. ^ a b Kurkjian, Tim (June 6, 2009). "Ohlendorf brimming with intelligence". ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=kurkjian_tim&id=4230662. 
  8. ^ Engineering school honors top graduates and distinguished faculty
  9. ^ From St. Stephen's to New York Yankees camp
  10. ^ Ohlendorf excited to finally be a Yankee
  11. ^ Yankees Weigh the Other Half of a Blockbuster Trade
  12. ^ Yanks prospect throws the ball low and hard
  13. ^ "Yanks acquire Nady, Marte from Bucs for 4 minor league prospects". SI.com. 2008-07-26. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/07/25/pirates.yanks.trade/index.html. Retrieved 2008-07-26. 
  14. ^ "Ohlendorf's season officially over". mlb.com. 2009-09-20. http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090920&content_id=7061280&vkey=news_pit&fext=.jsp&c_id=pit. Retrieved 2009-11-20. 
  15. ^ "Ross Ohlendorf gets big pay raise". ESPN. 2011-02-09. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6105146. Retrieved 2011-02-09. 
  16. ^ "Pirates' Russ Ohlendorf homers, nabs first win of season vs. Dodgers". ESPN. 2011-09-16. http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310915119. Retrieved 2011-09-16. 
  17. ^ Chad Ohlendorf Bio
  18. ^ "Mr. Ohlendorf goes to Washington". http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091022&content_id=7526464&vkey=news_pit&fext=.jsp&c_id=pit. Retrieved 2009-11-19. 
  19. ^ http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/feed/2010-09/smart-athletes/story/sporting-news-names-the-20-smartest-athletes-in-sports

[edit] External links


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